Bills to Watch 2012

Bills to Watch 2012

Treaty – UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Update: Treaty made it through the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. We project it might come up during the lame-duck session.

This treaty is a threat to not only to our national sovereignty, but there are some serious life-issues as well. The Treaty will supersede the ADA and all U.S. laws concerning persons with disabilities will be subject to the United Nations’ international laws.

Additionally, states will be forced to remit and sovereignty they maintain regarding disability laws, and the UN will possess the power to determine the legitimacy and lawfulness of the United States’ budgets, in order to assess compliance with the Treaty. The UN will also obtain full authority over the monetary details involved with the compliance of the U.S. with the treaty.

Update: The House voted (244-185) to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety.

As the 31st attempt to repeal all or a portion of ObamaCare, the only way this bill will take effect is if it is brought up and passed by the Senate. Realistically, this will not happen, and the only way to overturn ObamaCare is to take back the Senate and the White House in November 2012 and pass a full repeal.

It is important to note that this vote put lawmakers back on record on the law after the SCOTUS ruling last month that upheld most of the as Constitutional, but determined that the individual mandate qualifies as a “tax” and not a “penalty” as the Obama Administration claimed.

This legislation, ceding Congressional authority to the Executive Branch, was authored by Senator Schumer (D-NY) and removes the requirement of Senate approval for a number of Presidential appointments. It reduces the estimated 1215 positions that require Senate confirmation to around 1000 positions. Many conservatives argue that this legislation further erodes the constitutional powers of Congress in favor of an ever more powerful Executive branch.

While it is undeniable that the number of appointments for the Senate to confirm has grown substantially in recent years — requiring more time and work by the Senate—the obvious conservative solution to this problem should be reducing the size and scope of the Federal government so that we don’t have so many positions in the first place.

Eagle Forum unofficially opposed this vote.

D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

On July 30, 2012, the House rejected H.R. 3803, the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, by a vote of 220-125-2.

The legislation was brought up under a process called “Suspension of the Rules” that requires 2/3 vote for passage. This important pro-life bill would prohibit abortions in our nation’s capital after 20 weeks, at which point most in the medical community acknowledge that unborn children begin to feel pain.

Many conservatives feel strongly that this legislation should be brought up again by House Leadership under regular order so that the bipartisan majority that supported this legislation can actually pass it.

The bill provides a one year extension of all current individual tax rates, as well as the 15 percent top rate on capital gains and dividends. The proposal also extends for one year the estate tax rates at their current levels, the $1,000 child tax credit, marriage penalty relief and certain educational tax credits. The bill also provides higher small business expensing limits for one year and would repeal the personal exemption phase-out and the “Pease” limitations in 2013.

Finally, the bill provides a two-year AMT patch which would be adjusted for inflation. In total, the bill prevents a tax increase of $383.6 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), and it prevents the President’s small business tax increase from destroying more than 700,000 jobs and reducing wages for average American workers by 2 percent—outcomes predicted in a recent study by Ernst and Young.